The Jungle Book review: ” A wild, wonderful and welcome return”

The Jungle Book review: Jon Favreau nails it with this visually stunning revival of perhaps Disney’s greatest movie.

The Jungle Book review by Paul Heath. Jon Favreau revisits Disney’s 1960s classic animated movie, and of course Rudyard Kipling’s wonderful books, and brings it bang up to date for this live-action/ CGI-animated fare that is a wonderful, wild spectacle that pleases from the off.

Re-imagining an animated classic, especially one that is lauded as being one of he best in Disney’s huge, applauded back-catalogue is quite a task to under-take, but under-take it is just what actor turned celebrated film-maker Jon Favreau has done with the is epic 2016 version. 1967’s The Jungle Book was one of the last movies that Walt Disney personally worked on. Released just ten months after his death, the film was described as near-perfect, and was received exceptionally by critics and audiences alike. Favreau’s 2016 version remains pretty tight to Disney’s ’67 version, the action revolving around Mowgli (here played by newcomer Neel Sethi), an orphan boy raised in the wilds of the jungle by a pack of wolves, headed by alpha Akela (Giancarlo Esposito) and the panther Bagheera (Sir Ben Kingsley). We enter their world when their homeland is going through an incredible drought, a time when the animals of the jungle have come up with an agreement that there shall be peace all around until the rains return. Fiendishly stalking the land at this time is the threatening Shere Khan (voiced by Idris Elba), a much-feared tiger who is on the look out for his next meal; specifically the man cub Mowgli that he’s managed to sniff out. Realising that he’s putting his only family at risk, Mowgli decides to leave the wolf pack, and sets out on a journey of self-discovery with Bagheera to return to where he truly belongs.

As we stated above, this version of The Jungle Book stays incredibly close to Disney’s ‘original’, a lot like its predecessors, Maleficent and Kennth Branagh’s superb Cinderella – and why wouldn’t you? The Jungle Book, the original, is much-loved and for many, it is one of the first movies cinema-goers of a certain generation would have seen in theatres (either on its original outing or during its many re-releases in the decades that followed).

Favreau and screenwriter Justin Marks (who is also penning the planned Top Gun 2), have delivered in spades on the nostalgia factor. We get appearances from the alluring Kaa (here voiced by Scarlett Johansson) with her mesmerising eyes, the lovable Baloo The Bear (Bill Murray – a stand-out), and at least two of those memorable songs from the 1967 version, The Bare Necessities and King Louie’s ‘I Wanna Be Like You,’ delivered with Christopher Walken (who voices) twang and structured pause.

Watch The Jungle Book trailer :: Continue reading The Jungle Book review

Parents do beware however, as 2016’s ‘Jungle Book’ is, in places, really quite scary. Whether it be the foreboding presence of Elba’s brilliant performance as Khan, the thrilling though intense chase sequence with Louie and his army of monkeys in the film’s latter third, or the threat of Ka devouring a trapped Mowgli as she squeezes the life out of him earlier on, this is pretty gripping stuff, and we’d have to caution any parents with children younger than 7 or 8 even thinking about taken their offspring along for a fun afternoon at the local picture house.

The Jungle Book is an epic, visual feast. Not since Avatar has 3D played such a part in a cinema experience, and not since The Life Of Pi have CGI-animated animals been depicted this well. This is ground-breaking stuff, and through the advanced technology used, The Jungle Book takes both 3D and CGI to the next level, the former actually furthering the experience than a two-dimensional version (just see the scenes with Ka for a perfect example). You’ll marvel at the way in which every animal moves in this, at how realistic they are, and how seamlessly Neel Sethi’s perfect performance embeds in amongst it all.

The vocal performances are also excellent,  stand-outs being Bill Murray’s lovable Baloo, the fierce tones of Idris Elba (in his second of three Disney movies this year – following Zootropolis and ahead of Finding Dory) are spot-on and thoroughly nail-biting, and Walken’s King Louie so eccentrically wonderful.

Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book is a magnificent adventure that is wonderfully told. A visual marvel throughout, the film captures the magic of Disney’s original movie and through the wonders of modern technology, propels the viewer into a photo-realistic world full of talking animals, scary tigers and yes, singing bears all over again. A wild, roaring, visual wonder that is truly memorable. Go and see it at your earliest opportunity.

The Jungle Book review by Paul Heath, April 2016.

The Jungle Book is released in U.K. and U.S. cinemas on April 15th, 2016.